Life, life and more life

5:30 am
Wendy van Eyck
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Still, it’s what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life. And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him. Isaiah 53:10 (MSG)

I don’t like pain, suffering or death.

I don’t like thinking about these things happening to me or to people that I love.

When I think about my life I like to think of it as being ice-cream and chocolates and plump toddlers chasing bubbles.

But I know that is not the way life is.

I know because I grew up with a mother, who was in-and-out of hospital with a heart condition. I played in the sandpit with a brother who has a chronic autoimmune disease. And then I married a man who was diagnosed with cancer 8 months after our vows.

I wrestle with the idea that God allows there to be pain in the world.

I struggle with this verse in Isaiah 53:10 that says, “Still, it’s what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain.”

I grapple with the idea that pain could be part of God’s plan. It doesn’t sit comfortably with me, that suffering.

I’m still trying to figure this out, still asking God questions, still seeking to understand what God had in mind all along.

But in all of this I have one thing settled in my soul. I truly believe in the second part of Isaiah 53:10 which says, “The plan was…that he’d see life come from it – life, life, and more life.”

I’ve seen that in my own life, beauty growing out of hard places, hope flowering in terrible circumstances and love winning in hospital wards and on honeymoons.

I’m learning that I don’t have to understand God’s ways to hang on to his promises.(tweet this)

On the days when I get angry that the people I love are in pain or suffering or pass away, I think about this verse.

I think about how God has promised that even out of pain he will bring life, life, and more life.

Ponder: Does the idea that God will bring life out of pain help you to cope with suffering or death?

Prayer: Lord, help me to trust in your promises even when I don’t understand your plan. Amen.

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I'm Wendy and I'm learning to love well, run well and read well. I write for anyone who has ever held a loved one’s hand through illness, or believed in God despite hard circumstances or ever left on a spontaneous 2-week holiday through a foreign land with just a backpack.

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Meet Me

I'm learning to love well, run well and read well. I’m married to Xylon - a man who talks non-stop about cycling - and makes me laugh. I write for anyone who has ever held a loved one’s hand through illness, or believed in God despite hard circumstances or ever left on a spontaneous 2-week holiday through a foreign land with just a backpack.